Make Time For Me

Ellie nodded, and pulled Angela out the door, hefting her over her shoulders like a sack of psychopathic potatoes.

Jason scooped Olivia up in her arms and stumbled out after Ellie.

“I called 911. They’ll be here soon.”

“She set fire to curtains. I put out the one in the living room before I went up, but she… Damn, she’s crazy!”

Ellie dumped Angela on the grass and started giving her first aid.

Jason set Olivia down.

“Olivia. Olivia, hey, open your eyes.”

She did, to his relief.

“Angela. Ellie.”

“All fine. Everybody’s fine. Paramedics are here. Come on, you’re getting checked out, and then you’re coming home with me.”

Olivia didn’t argue. She didn’t have anything to say, anyway. Her home, the one she’d been so happy to think of as home, was going up in smoke.

Paul looked around his kitchen table and sighed a little.

“I still don’t understand why Angela would do something like that. It makes no sense.”

“I know. I know, and how could none of us have known? It’s all… Well, it’s over. Angela will get the care she needs,” said Ellie.

“Because Olivia here went and pleaded Angela’s case.”

Olivia shrugged.

It had been a month since then, and sometimes it felt as if they were all still in shock. It was still hard to believe. But now that she knew what Angela’s background was, she could have compassion, even if she couldn’t empathize.

“There’s no point getting her locked up. It makes more sense to get her help.”

“Is it any wonder I love her? I love her,” declared Jason, and pulled her closer to him.

“Disgusting, aren’t they? We should stop cooking for them if they don’t stop being so disgusting around us, Paul.”

“We cook far too much for just the two of us, Ellie. We have to feed them,” complained Paul, and Olivia grinned.

It made sense that Ellie had moved in with Paul while the damage was being taken care of, but she did miss having Ellie around all the time. But waking up with Jason every morning had its perks, too, and she enjoyed every minute of them.

She sat there with her friends and the love of her life, and she realized that she was finding contentment again. She wasn’t jumping at shadows so much. She didn’t have panic attacks so often. She wasn’t so suspicious of people.

Family, she realized again – she had more family now. That’s what Angela had needed, maybe. Family.

“You are the most beautiful maid of honor,” declared Jason.

Olivia chuckled.

“You have to say that. Now, please, behave. Do not raise hell with Daniel. How wrong I was about the two of you perhaps not getting along as well as you and Caleb do. How wrong I was. But this is Cara’s big day, and you will all behave.”

They nodded.

“It’s my big day, too,” said Caleb a little plaintively, and Olivia grinned.

“Sure, big brother.”

She walked down the aisle, and she met Jason’s eyes as she passed him. Cara walked down the aisle, on her father’s arm, and she was the most beautiful bride Olivia had ever seen. She sighed, cried a little as her best friend and her brother made their vows to each other.

She laughed, applauded, and whistled when they kissed, far more enthusiastically than you were supposed to in a church.

A year, she realized – it had been a year since that halcyon day when Caleb had proposed to Cara, and Cara had said, “Of course, you silly ass.”

It was all a blur of joy as Cara and Caleb ran down the aisle.

She wasn’t even trying to catch the bouquet when it was tossed, though. She wasn’t paying attention at all, and it hit her in the head, making her wince. She grabbed it and glared at it.

Then came the garter toss. There was a lot of hooting and howling as Jason caught it. He had that gleam in his eyes when he came to her.

“Oh no, you don’t. You absolutely do not, Jason. You do not.”

“It’s tradition, Olivia. You wouldn’t want to go against centuries of tradition.”

“You wouldn’t want my foot going up your ass,” hissed Olivia.

“Aren’t you a feisty one! Well, how about this instead?”

He grabbed her arm and pulled her away, to more appreciative whistles and hoots. Olivia glared at him, hands on her hips, when he finally let go after they rounded a corner and were out of sight.

“Jason, what the hell do you think you’re…”

Her words were cut off when he dropped to one knee.

“I didn’t want to take over their big day with a proposal, so I figured I should get you alone. Besides, it’s much less embarrassing this way if you say no.”

“Jason.”

“You’re the light of my life, Olivia. Marry me.”

She looked at him, and her heart nearly burst with joy.

“Yes,” she told him, and when he put the ring on her finger and pulled her into his arms, she held him close, kissed him, and let herself feel it.

Safe. Loved.

Forever.

The end.